Senior Mining Engineer and Mine Development Specialist

Senior Mining Engineer and Mine Development Specialist

Opportunity track: SEA / GLOBAL
Engagement: Contingent individual consultant; engagement may be direct or through an eligible U.S. consulting firm
Location: Remote — United States, with possible international travel
Primary promotion location: Denver, Colorado 80202
Anticipated consulting fee: $150–$275 per hour, or a negotiated fixed price by work package

The opportunity

Axyde is building a senior expert bench for anticipated U.S. government-funded project-scoping assignments involving critical-minerals extraction, mine development, expansion, modernization, and associated infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific and other global markets.

The selected specialist will help Axyde determine whether proposed mining projects have a credible technical basis, an implementable development pathway, commercially reasonable assumptions, and an appropriately designed next-stage feasibility study, technical-assistance assignment, or pilot. Assignments may begin with incomplete data and require rapid, independent, and defensible conclusions.

Potential responsibilities

• Evaluate mine concepts, production plans, development sequences, mining methods, operating assumptions, and resource-to-reserve considerations.
• Review available geological, geotechnical, hydrogeological, geometallurgical, and engineering information for material gaps and risks.
• Assess surface or underground mine-design considerations, including access, ventilation, dewatering, ground control, materials handling, waste management, mine services, and closure dependencies.
• Evaluate mobile and fixed-equipment strategies, automation, electrification, digital-mine technologies, productivity assumptions, workforce requirements, and operating readiness.
• Assess interfaces among the mine, processing facilities, tailings and waste systems, water supply, power, transport corridors, ports, and other enabling infrastructure.
• Develop or review technical tasks, required qualifications, deliverables, schedules, and budgets for pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies, technical assistance, and pilot activities.
• Develop or independently review preliminary production, schedule, CAPEX, OPEX, implementation, and risk assumptions at a level appropriate to the available information.
• Evaluate permitting, mine safety, environmental, social, community, logistics, supply-chain, and execution dependencies affecting development.
• Participate in sponsor interviews, technical-diligence calls, and occasional site visits involving project sponsors, host-country stakeholders, financiers, and prospective U.S. suppliers.
• Contribute to concept consultations, initial assessments, project reports, presentations, and sector deep dives.
• Clearly distinguish source data, professional judgments, assumptions, limitations, and matters requiring validation by a Professional Engineer, Qualified Person, Competent Person, or other appropriately licensed professional.

Required qualifications

• Degree in mining engineering or a closely related engineering discipline.
• At least 10 years of directly relevant mine-development, mine-planning, technical-services, operating, or consulting experience.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating critical-minerals, hard-rock, industrial-minerals, solution-mining, tailings-reprocessing, or comparable extraction projects.
• Experience translating technical findings into practical scopes of work, schedules, budgets, decision criteria, and risk-mitigation measures.
• Ability to evaluate early-stage projects with incomplete information and communicate uncertainty without overstating confidence.
• Strong analytical writing skills and the ability to work under compressed schedules.
• Contract-required status: The individual performing the work must be either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States (green-card holder). Other forms of U.S. work authorization do not satisfy the stated requirements of the anticipated contracts. A consultant engaged directly as an individual must maintain a principal place of business in the United States. A consultant proposed through a firm must be employed or engaged through an entity that independently satisfies the solicitation’s U.S.-firm requirements.

Preferred qualifications

• Professional Engineer registration and/or experience serving as a Qualified Person or Competent Person under an applicable reporting framework.
• Experience across both surface and underground mining methods.
• Experience with S-K 1300, NI 43-101, JORC, or comparable technical-reporting frameworks.
• Experience preparing or independently reviewing mine plans and scopes and budgets for pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies, technical assistance, or pilot projects.
• Emerging-market experience and familiarity with international project sponsors, host-country governments, U.S. government agencies, or development-finance institutions.
• Experience assessing mine automation, electrification, operational-improvement programs, technology pilots, or U.S.-supplied mining equipment and services.
• Familiarity with lender or investor technical due diligence and the technical inputs required for project economic and financial analysis.

Engagement conditions

This is a contingent consulting opportunity, not an offer of full-time employment. No award, assignment, minimum number of hours, or minimum compensation is guaranteed. Engagement depends on contract award, assignment fit, eligibility, conflicts, availability, successful completion of Axyde’s due diligence, and agreement on scope and pricing. The stated fee range is an anticipated range; the final rate or fixed price will depend on experience, role, work-package requirements, and applicable cost-reasonableness requirements.

Some assignments may require rapid turnaround, irregular coordination across time zones, or international travel. Travel requirements, approvals, insurance, and reimbursable costs will be addressed in the applicable consulting agreement or work order.

Participation in a U.S. Trade and Development Agency project-scoping assignment may make the participating consultant or subcontracting entity ineligible to compete—whether as a prime contractor, subcontractor, or otherwise—for certain USTDA-funded follow-on activities resulting from that assignment, unless USTDA grants a waiver. Axyde will disclose the applicable restriction and obtain written acceptance before issuing a work order.

Selected specialists may be asked for written permission to include their name, qualifications, and resume in a proposal. Applying does not by itself authorize Axyde to represent that an applicant has committed to a proposal or assignment.

Work performed under an awarded contract will be subject to applicable confidentiality, data-rights, information-security, professional-responsibility, and conflict-of-interest requirements. Any background intellectual property should be identified before an assignment begins.

How to apply

Apply through Axyde’s online application form using the heading SEA/GLOBAL – Senior Mining Engineer. Please provide:

• A resume or CV of no more than three pages.
• Two or three concise, directly relevant project examples identifying your role, commodity, jurisdiction, mine type and development stage, principal technical questions, and the resulting work product or decision.
• Your U.S. location, travel availability, availability during the anticipated performance period, and proposed hourly rate or fixed-price basis.
• A self-attestation that you are either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident and, if you would contract directly as an individual, that your principal place of business is in the United States. Applicants proposing engagement through a firm should identify the firm and confirm that it meets the applicable solicitation definition of a U.S. firm.
• Any relevant professional licenses or Qualified Person/Competent Person credentials, including applicable jurisdictions and reporting frameworks.
• Any known organizational conflicts, current client restrictions, or planned pursuits of potentially related USTDA-funded work.

Do not submit a passport, green card, Social Security number, or other identity document with the initial application. Do not include classified, export-controlled, proprietary, or client-confidential information in project examples; anonymized descriptions are acceptable. Axyde will request only the documentation needed at the appropriate stage of selection and engagement.

Axyde considers qualified applicants without regard to any status protected by applicable law. The citizenship or permanent-residence limitation above applies solely to work covered by the stated U.S. government contract requirements.